ISIL News 2017: Turkish Police Arrest Around 400 Potential Terrorists in Nationwide Raids
Due to its continued efforts to nab Islamic States of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) members who are plotting attacks against Turkey, the Turkish police were able to arrest around 400 ISIL suspects across the European country in a nationwide operation.
In a report by the Turkish state media, which was picked up by various news outlets, it was detailed that this past Sunday night, around 400 potential members, mostly foreigners, of the notorious terrorist group have been detained. The operation, which covered six provinces, is currently dubbed the biggest roundup of supposed rebel members in the country thus far.
During the nationwide campaign, at least 60 suspected ISIL members were caught in the capital city of Ankara, while 150 more were arrested near the Syrian border in a small town called Sanliurfa. Meanwhile, the latest mission, which is a simultaneous bust in Konya province, brought 30 supposed terrorists under custody with 10 more held in Adiyaman province.
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Meanwhile, a separate report from The New York Times delves deeper into how the ISIL group plans its attacks in other countries in which they do not have a base. As it turns out, some of these terrorists would coach someone from the targeted place who is willing to carry out an attack by himself or herself. The attacker will be coached online by the virtual plotters who will also deliver the weapons needed for their plan.
"They are virtual coaches who are providing guidance and encouragement throughout the process — from radicalization to recruitment into a specific plot," terrorism analyst at Valens Global, Nathaniel Barr, alongside Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, wrote on the War on the Rocks website detailing how the setup usually works. "If you look at the communications between the attackers and the virtual plotters, you will see that there is a direct line of communication to the point where they are egging them on minutes, even seconds, before the individual carries out an attack," Barr further noted.
Due to this, attacks across Europe, Asia and the United States, which were originally perceived to be carried out by single entities with no ties to ISIL were later discovered to have been part of this scheme along. This includes the attack on a community center in Garland, Texas back in 2015 in which someone suddenly opened fire with an assault rifle.
